The One who Smiles
by MasKaiHilFantic
Summary: Sometimes the most carefree people are the most devastated. Rated for language.


**Oh hello over there ^^ It's me MasKaiHilFantic thankful enough to be back with another first, this time from my latest binge; the Penguins of Madagascar :3 I absolutely love the show, ironically because once upon a time I used to dislike it XD I love the show very much, it's very warm, very funny and the characters are epic XD I just had to write them.**

 **This particular fanfiction was inspired from another show, My Hero Academia, where this character All Might said a very profound line which inspired me to write this fic, that line made me fall for the anime hard and made me want to watch it more (and I blame you, Indigo Jupiter for suggesting the show in the first place XD)**

 **Anyhoo before I get carried away, I'll present you one my first fanfic to one of my favorite shows. I hope you guys enjoy it ^^**

 **And i do not own the Penguins of Madagascar, or the Madagascar franchise for all that worth ^^` and yeah, I don't own BNHA as well**

 **On with the story :D**

* * *

"What in Sam Hill's name is going on?"

Skipper couldn't help but notice the loud music blaring into the dank confined of their hidden HQ. In fact, he'd plead that his undetectable penguin ears would somehow turn deaf to the loud music. Alas, that was not meant to be and as a matter of fact, his fellow comrades couldn't stand the tumultuously loud tunes as well.

"Do you all hear these loud and boisterous beats barge their ways into our busy little base?" Skipper eloquently wove an alliterated arrangement, which in honesty left his little comrade aloof.

"Uh, Skipper?" Private chimed in, confused.

Skipper sighed, "Do you guys hear this loud music tearing away at our ears?"

"Affirmative." Kowalski answered curtly as Rico nodded.  
"But who's making such a racket?" Private asked as he covered his ears, before they heard a sound which somehow was even louder than the music itself.

" _I cannot be believing this party of mine has been such a blast!"_

"Ringtail…" Skipper sneered as his beak twisted in anger.

"I recognize that enticing enunciation and that grave grammar of his anywhere." Skipper said as his eyes started to twitch, a clear sign of him getting chafed.

"I believe those loitering lemurs are lounging in their habitat whilst listening to such ear-shattering euphonies." Kowalski affirmed.

The two younger penguins continued to stare almost impassively as the two older penguins went to war on words, even in this alarmingly loud plight.

Rico blabbered something to Private who nodded in return. "I know Rico, not even I alliterate that much. And I'm English!"

"Somebody has to stop them," Skipper announced, "and that someone has to be us!" He slammed his flappers against one another determinedly.

"Oh boy…" Rico sighed; he as well as Private knew that a disaster was imminent.

* * *

"Maurice, the party is a smashing success!" King Julien announced as he continued to move along the beat to the loud music.

"Yes indeed, you majesty." Maurice affirmed, "The party is a big success, isn't it Mort?"  
"Yay! Party!" The ever so lively and cute Mort agreed and hugged the gregarious party host's feet.

"Mort! No touching the royal feet, especially when they are moving and grooving along to the spectacular sounds of soothing!" Julien exhorted, "So get off." He ordered and without waiting for its compliance shook Mort off his legs; the sorry yet cute lemur was launched like a cannonball and hurtled towards the approaching penguins, just missing them by mere inches.

"Eeep!" Private shrieked as Mort darted by.

"First the loud music, and now he's firing Sad-eyes all over the place." Skipper

"I believe Mort was hugging Julien's feet again, Skipper." Kowalski analyzed.

"Well, this calls for drastic measures." Skipper fumed, earning frightened looks from his youngest comrade.

"Now Private, I assure you I won't do anything too drastic to the poor m'fer." Skipper claimed as he tapped Private's head gently.

"That's what I'm afraid of…" The youngest penguin swallowed hard.

"Ah yes! Continue the dancing to this Drake's beats, doing the mamba to the Jamaican jamba baby!" Julien blissfully raved as he continued to move to the music, until it abruptly stopped.

What the—?" Julien bumbled as the music suddenly stopped whilst he was in the middle of his patented electric noodle.

"Maurice! Why did you turn off the royal music in the middle of the royal booty-shaking?" He demanded, obviously infuriated.

"Wasn't me." Maurice shrugged, equally as surprised as the king.

"Mort…" Julien grumbled suspecting the little guy to be the culprit behind the crime.

"I did not turn off the royal music, dear loving king." Mort innocently answered, fiddling with his little finger.

"Well if it wasn't you and if it wasn't you," Julien said pointing at Maurice and Mort respectively, "then who turned off the royal music?!"  
"That would be us, Ringtail." A manly voice affirmed as Julien saw the four penguins approach him.

"Oh ho ho! The tubby-tubby tots have come to boogie along with us!" Julien assumed.  
"Save the sass." Skipper immediately cut him off, "We're definitely not here to dance, unless you want to get pretty." He hissed. That cool September night had bathed the entire zoo in shadows and silence. Time stood still and silence canopied over the lemur habitat, except for Private's occasional little gulps of fear echoed in the dead silence like loud drums.

"Oh, well what business do you silly penguins have in here? Make it snappy because I have to get back to my booty shaking." Julien waved them off suavely.

"That's the thing," Skipper said as he pointed figuratively, "Your 'booty shaking'; you have to stop that."

"What?" The lemur's pique grew at the mention of his booty shaking.

"We are deeply disturbed and quite peeved from your little dance party." Kowalski confirmed. "Uh huh!" Rico added..

"So would you please be kind enough to turn down your loud music just a little bit?" Private pleaded.

"Turn down?" Skipper retorted, "Oh no, turn the music off completely!"  
"Uh, no can't do." Julien replied shaking his head, "Can't do that, the party must go on honey!"  
"No way!" Skipper countered, "This party is a shut-down, pronto!"

"This party shall rage on even if the world comes to a halt! So let's dance!" Without warning Julien once began moving to the music and turned up the music of his beatbox higher. Skipper smothered in anger, but Private sensed an imminent explosion.

"AAAAHHHH!"

"Oh no!" Private whispered as he took cover. Skipper dashed towards the source of the music, hitting everything in his path; Maurice took a swift flapper to the back of his head, Mort was flung off of the habitat again and Julien was tackled into the ground.

"Wait!" Julien tried to stop the peeved penguin, "stop!"  
But no use, Skipper pulled a baseball bat from hammerspace and immediately smashed the boombox into smithereens.

"No!" Julien helplessly wailed as his precious beatbox was smashed and leveled to dust by Skipper.

But the worst was yet to come.

"Look at what have you done!" Julien immediately disapproved of Skipper's anger. "The royal beatbox has been broken, and the royal party has been ruined."

"FUCK THE ROYAL PARTY, FUCK THE ROYAL BEATBOX AND FUCK YOU!" Skipper lashed out on the lemur, a gasp escaped from the insulted lemur.

"You…." Julien tried to say something, but was promptly cut off.

"You asshole of a lemur, I've had enough of your fucking parties! You weak, miserable, petulant pansy! You are an insult to all lemurs! Stop pretending being a king and showing everyone a good time, because WE AREN'T HAVING ONE!"

A silence descended the habitat once again, punctured by Skipper's heavy breathers and… Julien's sobbing?  
"I—" Julien choked, but he did not have the nerve to face this. He covered his face and took off, leaving everyone else in absolute shock over what has transpired. And Skipper felt the worse of it.

Time was brought to a halt around Skipper, his sweat beads froze to his forehead and suddenly his mouth ran dry. Almost in an act of intuition, he dashed in the direction where Julien ran off.

"Wow…" Rico mumbled.

"And he didn't even ask us to cover Private's ears…" Kowalski said with his jaw dropped.

"I have to admit, that was rough." Maurice softly commented.

Private's eyes shed a tear. "That was so harsh." He gulped; Kowalski wrapped his flapper around him in an attempt to comfort the young penguin. But he as well as everyone else knew, Skipper had really done it that time.

* * *

After scourging the entire zoo, Skipper spotted Julien sitting perched upon a brick wall. Skipper gulped real hard, even though he was miles apart he could see the pain swirling in the lemur's big brown eyes. He had really screwed up that time, but he never really meant to hurt him. Swallow nervously, Skipper approached the gloomy lemur.

"Uh… Ringtail?" Skipper cautiously called the lemur, his ears picked up that visible gruff accent.

"Oh, hello." He dimly replied.

"Listen, about what happened before…" Skipper was cut off.

"No, no. It's okay. I knew you didn't do it on purpose." Julien replied, "Here, have a seat." He added patting the rough wall.

"It's not okay," Skipper said as he plopped down, "It's just that…. Ugh!" He exploded and almost broke down before feeling a warm hand caress his back. His gaze immediately darted at the lemur who had a very comforting smile over his face.

"How do you smile even after all of this?" Skipper asked, innately and almost astonished.  
"Hm, there are many fears hiding behind this smile." Julien chuckled as he looked down.

"You said that I party a lot, you want to know why I party so much?" The lemur asked the penguin who promptly nodded.

"I wasn't always happy like this; my childhood especially was a tough part of my life." Julien sighed out as he gazed at the starry sky, "My parents left me. I never had any actual family; I wasn't popular where I was born. So I was basically raised by my aunt, she was really supportive of my 'upbeat nature'." Julien finished, Skipper just stared at him at awe.

"She always said, little Julie, hehe…" He chuckled, "she always called me little Julie. I found it weird."  
"I think it's cute." Skipper chimed in, Julien turned at him before gently nodding.  
"Anyways, she said little Julie, this world is too much of a pain to please. This world will never care about your happiness, only you can." Julien heaved a sigh, before continuing, "She told me the secret to face our demons."  
"Face our demons?" Skipper immediately questioned, he had his own demons to do battle with.

"Yes," the lemur replied, "Just smile. A smile is the most powerful weapon against our demons. They do not want us to be happy so they make sure that take our smiles away. But smiling is the only way we can tackle them and gain the upper hand over them." Skipper felt a chill travel up his spine, something about all of this seemed all too familiar to him.

"Just fake a smile, fake a laugh, pretend to be happy when you want to desperately cry. Just let the people around you and your demons know that you are not to be shaken so easily." Julien finished and smiled.  
"Wow…" Skipper was in absolute shock; up until now, Skipper had adopted rather a serious almost a solider like life. No laughter for him, he considered it to be childish and a weakness. What he considered as a weakness was used by someone else to treat their scars and fight their biggest fears.

"So you see, that is why I smile, and laugh, and party my butt off. I'm not the one who would want to disrupt anyone's peace; I myself am in a constant struggle to attain peace." Julien confided, "My methods might be received as eccentric, sometimes even rude. But my intentions are nothing but to heal myself. And if some people cannot deal with it, I shut them off." He looked at Skipper, deep down he knew that Julien was silently referring to his constant nagging.

"I never meant to hurt you as well," Skipper finally opened, "It's just that… my life has been similar to you. But instead of smiling, I decided to be rigid, to be hard and take on this world. I admit sometimes I felt lost, empty and even emotionless." He finished, choking up a little at the end. This was unfamiliar ground for the penguin, for he never actually confided with anyone, not even Private.

"Hm, I understand." Julien assuringly replied. "You're scared of letting people know your weakness; you found the world so frightening that you decided to fend it off by shielding yourself with aggression so they wouldn't even tempt messing with you."  
 _"Is this guy a philosopher or something?"_ Skipper thought baffled.

"It's okay to smile sometimes; this world truly fears those who are truly happy. And to be truly happy… you have to admit to yourself, nothing will go your way. The people you want so desperately to look at you will not beckon towards you, no matter how much you try. You just let it go, and those who truly appreciate you will come to you even if you don't try."

"You're right," Skipper replied, before turning to face Julien, "Ringtail I—er, Julien, I am sorry." He apologized, riddled with guilt.  
"Hm, don't be silly, willy." Julien chuckled, "I have already forgiven you."

Skipper pulled Julien into a tight hug, Julien allowed Skipper to open to him as the one stern penguin began to feel peace instill within him.

 _Maybe this would change things for him, hopefully..._

* * *

Meanwhile back at the lemur habitat anxiety and unease rested over everyone, Skipper had been gone for quite a while and Julien was still nowhere to be found. Everyone grew worried, and Private was getting the worse of it.

"I'm so worried Kowalski," The tubby penguin bawled as he waddled around the place.

"Pacing around won't help you Private," Kowalski cautioned, "Fretting over this won't help you."  
"Well at-least I seem to care about him!" Private retorted, "How you guys are able to stay calm at such a time?"  
"Because they know that it's better than to worry their feathers out."  
Private's ears picked up a familiar comforting statement; he turned in the direction of the voice and saw Skipper walking towards them, with Julien and as triumphant smile over his face.

"Skipper!" Private jabbered as he rushed towards his commander and immediately embraced him in a tight hug.

"Whoa there!" Skipper blurted out as Private's grip tightened around him, and his tears ran free.

"I thought you'd left us!" Private's cries muffled in Skipper's chest. Smiling gently, the elder penguin pulled his youg private off of him.  
"Hm, and not without teaching you how to face your demons? Not a chance solider." He answered wiping off Private's tears, who spotted a calm Julien standing beside him.  
"You and Julien…" He guessed, aghast.

"Yes, young private. We made up." He announced, so that everyone would hear loud and clear. Without warning Rico and Mort jumped up in joy.

"Yay!" They cajoled in unison.  
"That's such a relief!" Kowalski added.

"But your majesty, how did you two make up?" Maurice asked, absolutely surprised.

"Oh, let's just say we decided to 'fight our demons and conquer them once and for all.' Isn't that right you silly penguin?" he implored.

"Affirmative, you little asshole." Skipper chuckled out.

"Hehe, he loves me." Julien jested as Skipper rolled his eyes.

"So does this mean…?" Maurice asked, obviously about the party.  
"Yes, Maurice; the party is on once again! And this time the penguins will penguin their little feathered fedoras till their faint!" Julien announced and as if my magic, the music once again jingled along before it was accompanied with a bass boost. Everyone, in their state of pure bliss moved along the music. Even Skipper slightly wiggled along the beats.

"Skipper?" Private noticed his once stoic leader now moving to the music.  
"What? Can't a guy catch a break and dance?" Skipper tittered.

"You never told me the secret to face our demons." Private inquired, with his familiar light gleaming brightly in his eyes.

"Just smile at them, young private. Just smile at them." He gently answered.

"Just like we smile at the zoo visitors?" Private asked as everyone else partied along happily.

"Just like that Private, before you know it our demons will be running away from us." Skipper finished as he pulled Private close besides himself and they continued watching the rest partied on, while Mort was bounced along like a volleyball by Rico and an iron-willed yet gentle King Julien.

 _The one who always smiled..._

* * *

 **I'm not particularly proud of all of my work (you can see my previous writing to understand why) but I have to be honest, this is one of those rare moments where I proclaim that I am proud of what I have written. As I came to the part of Julien's confession, I felt this sudden surge of emotions within me; a mixed feeling of pride, pain, forgiveness, guilt, and overall satisfaction. I honestly enjoyed writing this fanfiction and yes I am definitely proud that I have written this.**

 **So I want to thank All Might, that silly screwball of a superhero who inspired me to write this fanfic the first place, and Indigo Jupiter who suggested me the anime in the first place. And lastly I want to thank you dear reader, for taking time to read this little piece of work.**

 **Though I'm not perfect so I am definitely hoping for some constructive criticism. Is there something I can do to improve? Let it rip folks :D**

 **And reviews would do so well for me :3 Pwease?  
**

 **~Machu**


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